Party for the blind

On Monday 19th May the Club hosted our annual party for 30 guests at the Methodist church in Marlborough Road.

The advance troops of Rotarians and other volunteers arrived promptly at 3pm to be drilled, by the boss, Helen Braisby, into a smooth, efficient team of multi-taskers who showed that it is possible to be skilled at erecting and laying tables as well as acting, later in the day, as supremely confident food servers/washer-uppers.

Thanks to the other team of Rotarian chauffeurs our guests all arrived in time to have a really fabulous tea of, amongst other things, freshly made sandwiches and fabulous varieties of cakes including a scrumptious, hot from the oven, Cornish heavy cake. Our sincere thanks go to Pat and Malcolm Dibb for all the enormous work in providing the catering.

The mayor of Banbury, Cllr. Sean Woodcock, was kind enough to attend the whole event and spent a great deal of time circulating amongst the party- goers and hearing some truly fascinating stories. He was particularly thrilled to meet George who had played for Stockport County as a professional footballer from 1936-38 being paid the princely sum of £10 per week.

A full hour of entertainment was provided through the auspices of Fred Riches who called upon his family and Florence the winner of our Young Musician of the Year. What a superb show and these sentiments were expressed in a vote of thanks both from the guests and the Mayor.

Of course behind the scenes the hall was cleared, the washing up done and everything put away and once the carriages had returned to take our guests home, we were able to reflect upon a very successful evening. Our thanks go to all the Rotarians who helped make the party truly special.

A very special thanks should be extended to Helen Braisby who pretty much did all the organising plus making the posies of flowers for each attendee to take home.